African American CU Coalition Encourages NCUA’s Office of Minority and Women to Do More

While the NCUA’s Office of Minority of Women Inclusion was created to ensure diversity in management, employment and business activities, the two-year old division has much more room to have an impact.

Among them is providing a further breakdown analysis of minority and women-owned business contractors and suppliers with regard to the percentage of minority-owned businesses versus women-owned businesses.

The AACUC also suggested engaging trade organizations to promote diversity as a credit union best practice via conference sessions and include in roundtables meetings a more comprehensive representation of credit union trade and advocacy groups.

The coalition also recommended establishing a SEC counterpart rule requiring credit unions to report its diversity policy and the methods used to diversify its workforce including boards and senior management on Call Reports.

Through its OMWI, the NCUA should also consider encouraging the proactive recruitment of qualified minorities and women with respect to the strategic needs and goals of the agency and credit unions, the AACUC said.

This can be accomplished by utilizing the talent banks or biographical databases of credit union advocacy groups such as the AACUC or Network of Latino Credit Unions & Professionals for workforce placement referrals.

Finally, the AACUC suggested increasing transparency of procurement process for goods and services contracted for and by the NCUA in areas such as asset management, for instance.

In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act established a mandate that required the NCUA and other agencies to create OMWIs.

“The AACUC commends and supports the NCUA’s OMWI in its efforts to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act mandates. However, the agency must go further. The AACUC recognizes and advocates for diversity as a means to foster new approaches and fresh perspectives toward achieving credit union perpetuity for generations to come,” the AACUC wrote in a position paper, Dodd-Frank, Diversity and the Credit Union Movement.

In January 2011, the NCUA opened its OMWI in compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and submitted to Congress its first report as required by the law.

In its report released in April 2012, the NCUA said it needed to do more with its efforts to hire more minorities.